NAS Question

So I am thinking of getting a NAS due to the fact that I am running short on space so I will need to upgrade that anyways and I am tired of having all of the data on my computer with that acting as a media server.

I think I have decided that I want to get a synology device and currently I am thinking of getting a 4 (maybe 5) bay device. So my question is what is the actual real world differences between the DS412+, DS413, and DS1512+ other than the DS1512+ has 5 bays and the other 2 has 4. I can look at the specs of them all day long but have no experience converting those specs into useful real world stats.

I would like to run sickbeard and a torrent client on it. I would also like to run a media server on it as well.

For serving media to various devices (most over wifi) will there be a noticeable difference? I think some of my files currently get transcoded when they are served but I'm not 100% sure since what I currently use to serve files handles that.

Why not get a real computer and install an OS on it so can run any program you want?

The HP Microserver is going for about 170 Euro's right now which is a steal.

You get 4 Drive bays, an Esata port and a low power consumption.

You can run all the programs you want on it depending on the OS you choose ofcourse.

Because I don't want a full blown system. I've gone that route and I'm trying to reduce the number of computers that I have not increase them. That is why the question wasn't what is the best way to serve media files it was What are the actual differences between these products.

I only put the things that I plan on running because there are differences in the specs between the different versions and I'm not sure how those relate to real world applications so I was letting people that would be answering what I would be doing.

Because I don't want a full blown system. I've gone that route and I'm trying to reduce the number of computers that I have not increase them. That is why the question wasn't what is the best way to serve media files it was What are the actual differences between these products.

So you'd rather buy an appliance that is basically a computer only more crap? What do you think a Synology is? Yep, it's a PC. Only it's a really low-ass spec PC running a bastardised OS that's a pain in the hole to do anything on.

You should REALLY consider changing your mind and buy something like the Microserver, or build a NAS-type box.

For the price of a Synology, you could buy a miniITX case that has 5 hot-swap bays, a miniITX board with a decent CPU, as much RAM as you want, and it'll still use less than 40W and run rings round a Synology from now until doomsday.

I run a Lain-Li PC-Q25B case which has 5 hot-swaps. It's got a cheap MSI B75 board, a Celeron G530, 8GB RAM, and 2x4TB and 2x1TB drives in there. There's also a 3TB drive for backing it up. All boots off a 64GB Crucial SSD. Runs Server 2012, Sickbeard, sabnzbd, uTorrent, DNS, DHCP, Crashplan, Hyper-V, and uses about 35W typically. Try all that on a Synology.

So you'd rather buy an appliance that is basically a computer only more crap? What do you think a Synology is? Yep, it's a PC. Only it's a really low-ass spec PC running a bastardised OS that's a pain in the hole to do anything on.

Hey now no reason for calling names

I didn't want to go there but you described exactly what I was thinking

Chill out, guys! This product line exists for a reason, and it's mostly because not everyone has the same expectations or goals that you do.

There's a lot to be said for just-works. I, and I'm going to guess the OP, are no longer interested in a system build and everything (including warranty support) that goes along with it. Just-works, and one stop in case anything goes wrong.

I've been using a Synology DS410j for about three years now. It's a very handy piece of hardware, and the software system that goes with it is rather nice. I've never tried to ask it to do anything that it wasn't capable of.

The built-in torrent client is good, though I'm not sure how it will tie in with Sickbeard. (I'm just not familiar enough with how Sickbeard works to say one way or another.) For similar purposes, I use an RSS feed from a well-known site and some NAS-side filters to download to the right locations.

The DLNA server is solid, though I do most of my media sharing via straight SMB.

For hardware selection, you first need to figure out how many users/clients/connections ou will have. I'd suggest avoiding the DS---j line, as it's a bit underpowered (at least it was three years ago), but for fairly standard home use I wouldn't take the DS412+ over the DS413. The cost just can't be justified in a home environment. Same goes for the five-bay model. It's expandable to fifteen disks, and aimed at a market segment (price/capability point) that doesn't describe you.

I'm looking to upgrade from my DS410j to a DS413 in the near future. I'm getting close to my capacity, and could upgrade disks only, but the thought of backing all that up over USB2 is just painful to contemplate. Even a single USB3 port would suit me. My plan is to move the disks over to the new channel wholesale, and then do the disks at a later date. But that's neither here nor there. I'd still recommend the DS413 over the DS412+, unless you had some very specific needs pushing you in that direction.

Chill out, guys! This product line exists for a reason, and it's mostly because not everyone has the same expectations or goals that you do.

There's a lot to be said for just-works. I, and I'm going to guess the OP, are no longer interested in a system build and everything (including warranty support) that goes along with it. Just-works, and one stop in case anything goes wrong.

I've been using a Synology DS410j for about three years now. It's a very handy piece of hardware, and the software system that goes with it is rather nice. I've never tried to ask it to do anything that it wasn't capable of.

The built-in torrent client is good, though I'm not sure how it will tie in with Sickbeard. (I'm just not familiar enough with how Sickbeard works to say one way or another.) For similar purposes, I use an RSS feed from a well-known site and some NAS-side filters to download to the right locations.

The DLNA server is solid, though I do most of my media sharing via straight SMB.

++ to all of the above. The "Download station" app is simple to get going through the Synology UI. DLNA support works well with my WD Live. All from a small, quiet box that sits inside an enclosed book case without any heat issues.

I use a DS1512+ myself, and to be honest there's very little a "real computer" can do that this one can't. It mostly comes down to specialized software that's only coded for conventional desktop OSes. Synology in particular has great support for third party software since you can load up third party Syno Repos and have them update through the built-in package center.

My NAS does everything the OP is looking for. I've got Sickbeard, Couchpotato, and SABnzbd running on it and I just use the Download Station built-in to the NAS to run torrents (it can handle NZBs as well, but I like SABnzbd for that better). Even has useful "blackhole" file functionality where you can just dump .torrent or .nzb files into a folder and have them automatically added. Works very well when combined with the Automatic Save Folder add-on for Firefox which can set-up filters and rule sets for file extensions.

Sickbeard, sabnzbd, uTorrent, DNS, DHCP, Crashplan, Hyper-V, and uses about 35W typically. Try all that on a Synology.

I can do all of that except using a VM itself. Though I can set up an iSCSI network share to install a VM on, I wouldn't trust an Atom with a maximum 3GB to run a VM though.

You seem to have no knowledge of the functionality offered by today's NAS boxes. Oh, and before you get picky, no, I can't run uTorrent, but it does have a built-in torrent client that's based on Transmission, that also combines the ability to download from an FTP server, NZB downloads and even eMule for those people that still use it (lord knows I don't).

I use a DS1512+ myself, and to be honest there's very little a "real computer" can do that this one can't. It mostly comes down to specialized software that's only coded for conventional desktop OSes. Synology in particular has great support for third party software since you can load up third party Syno Repos and have them update through the built-in package center.

My NAS does everything the OP is looking for. I've got Sickbeard, Couchpotato, and SABnzbd running on it and I just use the Download Station built-in to the NAS to run torrents (it can handle NZBs as well, but I like SABnzbd for that better). Even has useful "blackhole" file functionality where you can just dump .torrent or .nzb files into a folder and have them automatically added. Works very well when combined with the Automatic Save Folder add-on for Firefox which can set-up filters and rule sets for file extensions.

Thank you that was what I was looking for. Have you looked into the PB edition of sickbeard by chance? it is geared more towards torrents than newsgroups.

For the record I was aware that I could build a system to handle what I wanted but having a 2yr old the amount of time I wanted to devote to setting up a system and getting it working led me to wanting a pre-built system.

I haven't tried that out because I mainly use it for Newsgroups. It does have the ability to add torrent sources instead of newsgroup indexers, though. However, I can't be sure how good the torrent functionality is compared to the specialized version you're referring to as I never use it for that.

Torrent support is totally broken on Sickbeard. I've tried it a few times and it just doesn't work.

I'm currently using the PB edition and it works quite well. From what I've read on the forums for that edition the main author of Sickbeard does not want to put torrent support it so there is no hope of it every making it into the main release.

I was asking about it here because I remember reading something about sickbeard having a synology install package but I don't think that version does.